I'm just a little bored at work so figured I'd throw it up on the forums. I was putting new springs on my 2000 P38 so I decided to bleed the brake lines since I felt like the brakes could be a bit more stiff. I bleed out all the lines and that last one I bled had an incredible amount of air. None of the other lines had air. I finish that up and go to drive it around and all of a sudden I have to push the brake pedal down to the floorboard to stop. After continuing to drive I got an ABS Fault and the 3 amigos showed up. Drove the next day and the brakes felt just as bad, but the 3 amigos were gone and no fault. Any ideas? Thanks

 

How did you bleed them? A P38 has the most specific bleeding procedure of just about any vehicle. It is detailed in RAVE. Did you follow it? If you have to push the pedal to the floor, it sounds like you are going into the backup portion of the system instead of having the brakes activated by the stored hydraulic pressure that it is primarily supposed to use. When was the last time that the accumulator was replaced? Is your ABS pump running every time you apply the brakes? The system should have enough pressure stored in it to operate the brakes 20 or more times before the pump comes back on. Check this thread to see if the system is in good shape: abs
Here's the bleeding procedure: http://www.rangerovers.net/maintenance/brakebleed4.html And also make sure you use the correct fluid. There are many posts and threads about gunked up screens in the reservoirs from using something other than Castrol LMA fluid.

 

In my boredom at work yesterday I realized I did not bleed according to those instructions. My impatience will be the death of my P38 one day. I have no idea when the last time the accumulator was changed, but I found a post on rangerovers.net detailing some steps to check and make sure the accumulator is working properly. I don't know if the pump is running every time I use the brakes, but I know it wasn't nearly as bad as it is until I decided to bleed them without those steps. I'll have to try those bleed procedures and see what happens. Thanks